Toronto firefighters report longer travel times navigating gridlock and increased calls

Speaking to a Toronto committee, fire Chief Jim Jessop said the service faced an 'ongoing challenge' when it comes to how quickly trucks are able to get to the scene of a fire.

The amount of time it takes for firefighters to get to calls in Toronto is increasing as limited crews deal with increased calls in a gridlocked city. Speaking to a Toronto committee, fire Chief Jim Jessop said the service faced an “ongoing challenge” when it comes to how quickly trucks are able to get to the scene of a fire. “Toronto Fire Service continues to see an increase in travel time and total response time, which is an ongoing challenge influenced primarily by factors including call volume increase and unit availability to respond,” he said on Tuesday.

Travel times for trucks have been trending up for years. Get daily National news Officially, Toronto Fire Services aims to spend no more than four minutes travelling to calls 90 per cent of the time, a target it has strayed further and further from in recent years. Back in 2021, the average travel time was five minutes and 51 seconds.

That has steadily increased to six minutes and 15 seconds in 2025, when Toronto Fire only achieved its target 53 per cent of the time. Travel time, however, isn’t the only metric the service measures. Call processing times have remained constant at just under a minute, while firefighters are getting significantly faster at their turnout time target.

Figures presented to Toronto councillors show the total response time for Toronto fire has remained relatively consistent at around seven minutes and 44 seconds last year — compared to seven minutes and 38 seconds in 2021. “Call processing time, turnout time, travel time and total response time are key performance indicators for Toronto Fire Service and we measure against them,” Jessop said. “Our overall goal is to be arriving on scene of an incident within six minutes and 24 seconds, 90 per cent of the time.

“We have achieved that at 76 per cent of incidents in 202.” The report shows the total average time for firefighters to arrive after a call is placed is just under nine minutes, an improvement of 10 minutes and 40 seconds compared to five years ago.